PG&E solar billing named in California’s top utility ‘money wasters’

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email

Pacific Gas & Electric's “pre-Gutenberg” manual billing has been named as one of the top five biggest money wasters for California utilities.

Environmental campaign body the Sierra Club last week released the list to demonstrate its claims that California utilities are pushing billions of dollars in costs on to customer bills through dirty energy projects and outdated business practices.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Try Premium for just $1

  • Full premium access for the first month at only $1
  • Converts to an annual rate after 30 days unless cancelled
  • Cancel anytime during the trial period

Premium Benefits

  • Expert industry analysis and interviews
  • Digital access to PV Tech Power journal
  • Exclusive event discounts

Or get the full Premium subscription right away

Or continue reading this article for free

Sierra Club said PG&E charge customers five to 10 times more than Southern California Edison (SCE) or San Diego Gas & Electric. California's largest utility charges its solar customers a US$30 per month fee compared with US$3 for SCE.

“PG&E still uses manual billing for solar customers, decades after nearly everything else has been computerised. Customers, of course, foot the bill for this antiquated approach – time to switch from abacus to automation,” said a Sierra Club statement.  

“These efforts not only cost Californians money, they block the expansion of local clean energy like rooftop solar. It’s time for big utilities to ditch the dirty energy projects support clean energy solutions like rooftop solar.”

SCE's proposed US$3.15 billion coal plant in Kern County topped the list, followed by SDG&E’s and PG&E's natural gas power plants and SCE’s San Onofre Nuclear Plant, which has been closed since safety concerns came to light in January last year.

William Craven, public relations manager at SolarCity, said: “Northern and southern California are not on separate continents but the amount that PG&E appears to be spending on manual billing for Net Energy Metering customers is ten times what it is for those more southerly utilities. It begs the question as to why this is really necessary.

“It's yet another cost to be considered when you find lots of utility-handwringing about what they allege to be the costs of solar to ratepayers.

“This list illustrates that there are a lot of costs going around and the utilities would like to frame the net energy metering battle as a referendum on solar but really it ought to be a referendum on the utility model in 2013.”

A PG&E spokesman disputed the data used by the Sierra Club: “About 80% of our customers are billed automatically. But even for customers who aren't billed automatically there's no surcharge or standing charge, or additional charge.

“They're using an old report where we were asked to estimate what it costs to bill customers who weren't part of the programme for smart meters.”

Read Next

October 6, 2025
Genesis Energy and FRV Australia have mutually agreed to terminate their solar development joint venture while maintaining co-ownership of the 63MWp Lauriston solar PV power plant in Canterbury, New Zealand.
Premium
October 6, 2025
Talon PV aims to be the first US company to safely manufacture TOPCon cells at scale, backed by European technology and a crucial First Solar licensing deal.
October 6, 2025
Indian infrastructure company focused on rooftop and ground-based solar power installations, PVV Infra has secured solar power orders worth INR7.9 billion (US$90 million) through two of its subsidiaries. 
October 6, 2025
US utility AES Corporation is reportedly in discussions to be acquired by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a subsidiary of global asset owning giant BlackRock.
October 6, 2025
Indian solar developer ACME Group has established a new subsidiary to manage its renewable equipment manufacturing business, under which it is planning to scale production of TOPCon PV modules.
October 6, 2025
Rajasthan government will develop 500MW/2,000MWh of standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS) with a four-hour single-cycle configuration and extended operational life.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
October 7, 2025
Manila, Philippines
Solar Media Events
October 7, 2025
San Francisco Bay Area, USA
Solar Media Events
October 21, 2025
New York, USA
Solar Media Events
November 25, 2025
Warsaw, Poland